190904

S outher n C ross

September 4 to September 10, 2019

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 5151

September 8: Birthday of Our Lady

The

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R12 (incl VAT RSA)

When Catholics stop believing in the Real Presence

How the True Cross was found

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Archbishop: Laity must lead evangelisation STAFF REPORTER

Bishop Sylvester David prostrates himself during his ordination as auxiliary bishop of Cape Town in the auditorium of the City Hall. Inset: Bishop David before his ordination. (Photos: Stephen Docherty)

Robot now works in Vatican

BY CAROL GLATZ

T

Pilgrimage 2020

S outher n C ross

HE 145-year-old Vatican pharmacy has a new employee: a state-of-the-art robot working behind the scenes to manage the stockroom, retrieve medications and deliver the drugs quickly to the shopfloor.

The Vatican, which claims to have the busiest pharmacy in the world, recently adopted the new automated system from the Germany-based BD Rowa firm.

The pharmacy’s director, Br Binish Thomas Mulackal, said the automated technology will revolutionise the way they serve some 2 000 customers who come through the doors each day.

Because the pharmacy robot takes in the order, scans for it in storage, picks it up with a mechanical arm and quickly delivers it via a series of conveyer belts, it will allow the pharmacists to remain with the customer at the counter longer to give needed instructions and advice, he told the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

The faster delivery system also means customer wait time at the counter can be cut by 30%, he added.

Having a fully automated stockroom means the amount of space set aside for storage can be reduced, freeing up room that can be dedicated to the display and shopfloor or

The Vatican pharmacy robot in action.

(Photo: Vatican Media) to provide new services to customers, Br Mulackal said.

The system, he said, will track sales and lighten the load when it comes to inputting and inventorying stock. Its optical recognition technology also includes reading when medicines are close to expiring so they will not be dispensed.

Because robots are not 100% immune to electrical or mechanical breakdowns or jams, Br Mulackal said most problems could be fixed within four hours.

To make sure the robot doesn’t succumb to its own vulnerabilities of viruses, bugs and other hiccups, the software must be updated regularly and correctly, he said.—CNS

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N the present age, the laity must take the lead in evangelisation, according to Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town.

“We live in a time of disillusionment for many, a time when trust has been betrayed by leaders, whether they be political, economic or Church leaders,” Archbishop Brislin said, also noting the many people who have left the Church or are indifferent to it.

The archbishop was speaking at the ordination Mass of his new auxiliary, Bishop Sylvester David, in Cape Town’s City Hall.

“We live in a time of deep uncertainty and insecurity as foundations we have always taken for granted in terms of cultural or national identity, or what used to be commonly held values, are swept from under our feet.

“The temptation is to retreat into a fearful response, like an animal cornered, or to try and desperately re-establish an idealised old order that gives the illusion of having being a more perfect era,” the archbishop noted.

“Facing these challenges is the ministry of the Church,” he said, and this must be done by “bringing the love of Christ to those who thirst and long for it”.

The whole Church is called to “make that love concrete”, Archbishop Brislin said.

“Perhaps now more than ever, it is the laity who have to become the primary evangelisers, for it is they who have more direct contact with people and share in their daily lives and have greater opportunity to console, comfort and strengthen,” he said.

“The Christian vocation is to love, and every particular vocation in the Church is an invitation to deepen love, whether it be through marriage, the clerical state, religious life or single life,” the archbishop said.

“We can fulfil our call and our mission only if we strive to love more sincerely, more tenderly, each day.

“And this must be especially true of a bishop,” Archbishop Brislin said.

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Archbishop Stephen Brislin speaks at the episcopal ordination of Bishop Sylvester David. Seated next to him is Cardinal Wilfrid Napier. (Photo: Stephen Docherty) He told his new auxiliary that being a bishop today is not easy.

Quoting from St Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, the archbishop reminded Bishop David that “with all the love, honour and prestige given to us, we should not forget that we must always be prepared to be ‘fools for the sake of Christ’, to be placed ‘at the end of his parade’ and at times to be treated as the ‘offal of the world’”.

The vocation of a bishop “is not about honour or prestige”, Archbishop Brislin said. “It is a vocation that we have been called to fulfil and to do it in a way that will bring people closer to Christ.”

I

n his trilingual address, Bishop David noted that he was being consecrated to the episcopate by Archbishop Brislin, with Archbishop Jabulani Nxumalo of Bloemfontein, his fellow Oblate, and Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, whom he had served as vicar-general in Durban, as co-consecrators.

Continued on page 3

Pray in Medjugorje and visit Rome, with papal audience, Assisi, the town of St Francis, Loreto with Mary’s House.

Plus a tour of historic Split in Croatia.

Three countries in one tour!

2

The Southern Cross, September 4 to September 10, 2019

LOCAL

Jo’burg gears up for archdiocesan synod

BY ERIN CARELSE

H

AVING a diocesan synod every ten years is good practice, according to the vicar for evangelisation of Johannesburg archdiocese which is preparing for its second archdiocesan synod.

The archdiocesan synod takes place from September 20-21 at Cathedral Place in Berea.

“What we learnt from the last synod in 2008 was that unless someone is championing and promoting synod discussions and documents in the parish, it just remains a document,” said Jesuit Father Bruce Botha.

In preparation for the synod,

parish priests and synod champions—the contact persons who do the work around promoting and monitoring implementation of the resolutions—were asked to review how the resolutions of 2008 were implemented in their parishes.

They were also asked to place two questions before their communities: “What kind of Church do you want to belong to?” and “What are the obstacles that stand in our way of achieving that?”

They were then to discern, with their parish pastoral councils, the most important areas they felt the synod should address.

Of the 123 parishes in the archdiocese, 59 responded, with a large

number showing they had engaged with the process thoughtfully and prayerfully, Fr Botha said.

Eight topics emerged from those submissions, and the synod preparatory committee divided these into four themes.

• Youth: About three-quarters of respondents highlighted the importance of ministry to youth and were concerned that the Church is having great difficulty in retaining youth members post-Confirmation.

• Marriage: Areas mentioned were preparation before marriage, addressing honestly the clash between the traditional idea of marriage as a process, and the Christian one of marriage as a sacrament.

There was also the desire for the Church to be more accepting of the diversity of the modern family.

• Renewal: This covers areas such as spiritual growth, formation in the faith, liturgies that are lifegiving and fulfilling, and creating parish communities that are open and welcoming to all, irrespective of gender, language, race, national origin or socio-economic class.

An important concern raised was the need to resolve racial, economic and social divisions in the Church.

There is also the awareness that the activities of the Church, preeminently the liturgy, should create moments of greater connection with God, so that spiritual renewal

and conversion can occur.

• Discipleship: This poses the questions “What is our mission as the Church?” and “What does it mean for us to be disciples in today’s world?” Fr Botha said.

Many parishes mentioned the need for better leadership in the Church, recognising that without well-formed leaders, both clerical and lay, the mission of the Church is unobtainable.

“The outcome we’re hoping for from this is the renewal of life within our parishes, and that the resolutions that come out of the synod help us rediscover how we are meant to live out our calling as missionary disciples,” said Fr Botha.

Retreat helps ease rural priests’ isolation

BY SELBY MAKGOTHO

P

RIESTS in rural areas are often isolated from one another, so it is important that they come together from time to time, according to the bishop of Polokwane diocese.

Bishop Jeremiah Masela led priests from his diocese at the Mater Dei Pastoral Centre outside Mokopane on a week-long retreat.

The retreat included reflections, sharing of experiences, common prayer, and mutual encouragement.

“Priests are often alone in their

parishes, busy leading and guiding their parishioners, and so at times, they need to come together,” Bishop Masela explained.

“Our diocese is vast and mainly rural, and so we encourage priests to share and reflect on their different experiences, so they can learn from each other to develop and help to grow the Church,” he said.

“Together we are aiming to assist each other in overcoming challenges. The experiences differ from one parish to another, and this is the reason we need to be together

Raymond Deyzel, a hospitality minister at St Peter’s church in Swartkops, Port Elizabeth, sells The Southern Cross in the parish. He is seen here with Colleen Gordon.

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all Catholic parishes in the diocese, will take place on September 22 at Mater Dei, starting at 07:00 and culminating with a Mass.

S

ACRED Heart College in Johannesburg celebrated the 30th anniversary of Mindworks this year with the theme “Celebrating Diversity”.

Working to be at the forefront of educational innovation, every second year the co-educational Marist school in Observatory suspends the normal school curriculum for four days. Parents and guests host workshops that aim to extend and enrich the school curriculum, and offer insights into skills and life experiences.

Students have a wide range of beliefs, with Christians of all denominations, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Tamil and Hindu children, as well as non-believers. The exposure to others who believe differently, the college holds, “helps us to grow as human beings”.

“How we engage with diversity is something adults in South Africa and worldwide are grappling with,” said marketing

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ills confronting our communities,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Polokwane Diocesan Procession, a gathering of

BY ERIN CARELSE

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Priests in Polokwane, many isolated in rural areas, spent a week together on retreat. (Photo: Selby Makgotho)

School celebrates 30 years of Mindworks programme

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at times to confront the challenges of poverty and violence in our society,” the bishop said.

Bishop Masela said he was pleased with the journey undertaken in one week.

His message to priests was simple: “Let’s pray together to uplift our communities.”

The bishop said priests left the retreat “fully recharged” and “with a new sense of vigour, strength, and courage”.

“We are pledging to work together to pray for the many social

□ □

coordinator Lynn Walker.

Considering the theme “Celebrating Diversity”, learners listened to the stories of grandparents, engaged in the history of their school via an app made by a parent, knitted squares for people, did workshop plays, tested scientific

principles, beaded and painted, and learnt about biodiversity by planting a vegetable garden.

They also visited Soweto’s Apartheid Museum to learn about the country’s history.

At the end of the week, learners presented the school

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Knitting squares for others was among the activities during Sacred Heart College’s four-day Mindworks programme.

with their legacy Mindworks 2019 gift of new altar cloths for the college’s chapel. They also invited religious leaders associated with the school to offer the morning prayer.

The founder of Marist Schools, St Marcellin Champagnat, began his work in the wake of the French Revolution, as class distinctions that robbed poor people of education were being dismantled. He became famous for saying that the first task of an educator was to love children, and to love them all equally.

“At Sacred Heart College, we understand that to love children equally means to really ‘see’ the other person, to be curious, open, and respectful about their backgrounds and experiences,” Ms Walker said. n For more information, contact Lynn Walker on 011 0812200 or at marketing@sacred heart.co.za. See next week’s issue for an account of a pilgrimage to the places of St Marcellin Champagnat.

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The Southern Cross, September 4 to September 10, 2019

LOCAL

3

Redemptorist to launch book on ‘becoming love’

BY ERIN CARELSE

A

POPULAR mission priest will launch his new book at Johannesburg’s Catholic university this month.

Fr Larry Kaufmann CSsR will deliver a public lecture at St Augustine College on his new book Become Love: Gradual growth and transformation from John to Francis.

Sr Judith Coyle IHM and Fr Anthony Egan SJ will respond to Fr Kaufmann’s talk.

The Redemptorist priest, wellknown throughout South Africa for his parish missions, said he was dedicating his new book to the

memory of the late Prof Brian Gaybba, one of South Africa’s foremost Catholic theologians.

The book’s title comes from a conversation Fr Kaufmann had with Prof Gaybba not long before the latter died on February 25, 2018.

Reminiscing over his life as a theologian, Fr Kaufmann recalled, Prof Gaybba said: “I always spoke about God but never seemed to have an experience of God. But I got it wrong. It’s all about the experience of forgiveness. And knowing we are forgiven, perhaps then we can become love.”

Fr Kaufmann is currently the director of Redemptorist Pastoral Pub-

lications and writes for Catholic Link.

He is the provincial bursar and secretary for the Redemptorists in South Africa.

Presently based in Rustenburg, Fr Kaufmann is overseeing the construction of additions to the monastery there.

The lecture will be delivered in St Augustine’s auditorium at 53 Ley Road, Victory Park, Johannesburg, on September 19 at 19:00.

Copies of the book will be on sale for the special launch price of R100.

Entrance is free, but organisers ask for a suggested donation of R50

to cover costs. For catering, RSVP to h.hartwig@staugustine.ac.za by September 17.

Two days after his talk at St Augustine College, Fr Kaufmann will deliver a talk for We Are All Church South Africa, which he serves as spiritual director.

Titled “A Right By Rite: The Laity and the Sensus Fidei”, the lecture will be delivered on September 21 at 9:30 in the Harry Wilkinson Community Centre of Johannesburg’s Rosebank church at 16 Keyes Avenue.

RSVP for the Rosebank lecture by September 19 to Douglas Irvine by SMS to 082 330-3043 or dmirvine @mweb.co.za

New bishop’s motto echoes St Paul Jhb talk on sacred Scripture Continued from page 1 By a quirk of apostolic lineage, Archbishop Brislin had been consecrated by Archbishop Nxumalo, who had been consecrated by Cardinal Napier, who in turn had been consecrated by the Oblate Archbishop Denis Hurley, who ordained Bishop David to the priesthood.

He joked that Archbishop Brislin was now his “father”, Archbishop Nxumalo his “grandfather”, and Cardinal Napier his “great-grandfather”.

An apostolic lineage traces the succession of bishops by those who consecrated them. That apostolic succession goes back to the apostles, though records exist only as of the 16th century. The oldest known predecessor in the apostolic lineage of Bishop David is Cardinal Scipione Rebiba (1504-77), bishop of Sabina, Italy.

Before reading the papal bull of Bishop David’s episcopal appointment, apostolic nuncio Archbishop Peter Wells noted that Archbishop Brislin had long asked for an auxiliary bishop to assist him, especially because as president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference he had to travel a lot.

“In his wisdom, the Holy Father waited until your term as SACBC president was over,” Archbishop Wells joked to the amusement of the congregation.

Several bishops were on the

A

THEOLOGIAN will deliver a talk entitled “The Word of God in the Life of the Church” at the Pauline Conference Centre in Johannesburg on September 28.

Fr Michael Seheri, parish priest of Our Lady of the Rosary in Phiri, Soweto, lectures at St John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria.

He holds a licentiate and doctorate in sacred theology, specialising in

sacred Scripture, from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.

Fr Seheri’s lecture will be inspired by the Second Vatican Council’s document on Scripture, Dei Verbum.

His talk will be followed by questions and refreshments. n The Paulines ask for a donation of R50. Book with Sr Gisela at 011 6151598 or internet@paulines.co.za

Bishop Reginald Cawcutt, former auxiliary in Cape Town, listens to the choir singing in the City Hall ahead of the episcopal ordination Mass of Bishop Sylvester David, Cape Town’s new auxiliary. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher) makeshift altar of the City Hall auditorium. At the end of the Mass, Archbishop Brislin introduced them to the congregation, with the loudest cheer by far reserved for Bishop David’s predecessor as auxiliary of Cape Town, Bishop Reginald Cawcutt.

Since every bishop must have possession of a see, those who are not the head of an active diocese are allocated a defunct diocese, or titular see. Bishop David was assigned the see of Gunugus, a city in present-day Algeria which was de-

stroyed during the Muslim conquest in 640 AD. The 66-year-old Bishop David took as his episcopal motto “Unus Deus et Pater omnium” (One God and Father of all”, from Ephesians 4:6).

“Omnium literally means everything—including the ecology,” Bishop David said in the ordination programme.

“This expression was chosen as an encouragement to us to embrace to a greater extent the high calling to live as God’s children by caring for each other and for the ecology.”

The CatholiCare society of Assumption parish in Brooklyn/Milnerton, Cape Town, again had a stall at the One-to-One event in Cape Town Stadium that fosters special interaction between abled and disabled people. Parish priest Fr Stanley Botha is seen here with young participants. Parishioners collected sweets and toys to be handed out by the CatholiCare stall.

E C I R P L A I EC P S G N I R P S R C/W O O D C N I Z LU-

Fr Alan Hodgson, born in Bellville, Cape Town, in 1965, was ordained to the priesthood in Norwich cathedral in England by Bishop Alan Hopes of the diocese of East Anglia. Fr Hodgson’s early attempts to become a priest in South Africa did not prove fruitful, and he left for Britain where he built a career with British Airways. But the pull of the religious life as a priest was strong, and after working as a parish assistant for a year at Bury-St-Edmunds in Suffolk, he began his studies at Beda Pontifical College in Rome for four years. Fr Hodgson will soon be taking up his appointment as assistant priest in Ipswich. He is seen with his parents Irene and Trevor Hodgson of St Dominic’s parish in Hillcrest, Durban, who travelled to England with other family members to support him at his ordination.

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The Southern Cross, September 4 to September 10, 2019

INTERNATIONAL

Pope supports interfaith dialogue initiative

A

T a time when conflict and division dominate the world’s headlines, people need to know there is a growing number of important initiatives to promote interreligious dialogue and understanding, Pope Francis said.

The pope welcomed the United Arab Emirates government’s formation of an international committee to implement the document on “human fraternity”, which he and Sheik Ahmad elTayeb, grand imam of Egypt’s alAzhar mosque and university, signed in Abu Dhabi in February.

“Although sadly evil, hatred and division often make news,” the pope said. “There is a hidden sea of goodness that is growing and leads us to hope in dialogue, reciprocal knowledge and the possibility of building, together with the followers of other religions and all men and women of goodwill, a world of fraternity and peace.”

The Vatican press office pub-

Pope Francis welcomed uAE’s decision to implement the peace initiative which he and Sheik Amad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Egypt’s alAzhar mosque and university, signed in February. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) lished the pope’s remarks after Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, announced the initiative to promote meetings of religious leaders, academic study of the document, and support for legislation to broaden religious liberty

and tolerance.

Spanish Bishop Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, was named a member of the committee.

In an interview with Vatican News, Bishop Ayuso said the document is an appeal to build a “civilisation of love”, and should not lead to a fear that Catholics will stop believing that the fullness of salvation lies in Christ.

“I think fear is the number one enemy of interreligious dialogue,” he said. “The Catholic Church remembers the value of its own identity, the courage of otherness and the sincerity of intentions” of those who engage in dialogue.

“It is not about creating a ‘melting pot’ in which all religions are considered equal,” he said, “but that all believers—those who seek God and all people of goodwill without religious affiliation—are equal in dignity.”—CNS

Mexican bishop: Collapse of heroin trade has left communities starving

BY DAVID AGREN

A

BISHOP in Mexico’s heroinproducing heartland is urging the federal government to hold talks with armed groups—including drug cartels—saying many in the illegal drugs business are unable to make ends meet and are “seeking an exit”.

Mexican interior minister Olga Sanchez Cordero said that talks were taking place with armed groups, but later clarified to say that they didn’t include drug cartels and rather were with so-called community police and self-defence groups, the Associated Press reported.

Such self-defence groups ostensibly form to provide security in lawless regions but are sometimes co-opted by drug cartels or stray into

illegal activities.

But Bishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza of Chilpancingo-Chilapa said that the government should “reach out” to both self-defence and criminal groups in his diocese in Guerrero state, saying leaders were ready to talk.

“If the government wants to dialogue with these criminal groups and, above all, wants to talk with these community police forces, I think that’s good,” Bishop Rangel said.

“To get peace you have to dialogue, even with Satan, with whomever it might be to get peace,” the bishop said. “ He has sought drug cartel bosses for talks in one of Mexico’s most marginalised and violent states, Guerrero, which unfolds to the south

of Mexico City and includes the glitz of Acapulco and the misery of impoverished indigenous villages, where people plant opium poppies to survive.

But Bishop Rangel said the illegal economy of planting opium poppies and processing heroin has collapsed because of the rise of synthetic fentanyl, which is sold more cheaply. It has left communities in his diocese devastated and suffering hunger, he said, as people struggle to plant alternative crops such as corn after a lifetime of getting easy money from drugs.

With the crash in heroin prices, some of the drug cartel leaders, Bishop Rangel said, “no longer want to fight because it doesn’t make sense. What are they fighting over?

Now, nothing.”—CNS

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St Thomas Aquinas. (Photo: Gene Plaisted, The Crosiers/CNS)

Free online video series on St Thomas Aquinas

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FREE online video course on the thinking of St Thomas Aquinas has been launched.

“Aquinas 101” consists of 85-90 videos which will be released over the course of a year by the Thomistic Institute in Washington DC. The series will introduce the basics of the Catholic intellectual tradition with St Thomas Aquinas, the hugely influential 13th-century Dominican theologian, as a guide.

The first three videos can now be viewed on aquinas101.com or on YouTube.com The videos in the course each feature a Dominican friar/professor and are animated to illustrate the doctrines described.

The priests featured include Frs Dominic Legge, Thomas Joseph White, Thomas Petri, James Brent and Gregory Pine.

The course proceeds through an introduction to St Thomas, a basic description of his philosophy, and

an in-depth study of his masterwork, Summa Theologiae.

“At the end of the course, the viewer can expect to have gained a basic mastery of the essentials of Aquinas and to have acquired the tools to engage many difficult issues of faith and science, reason and revelation, and beyond,” said a news release from the Thomistic Institute.

By enrolling in the free video course, subscribers also will have access to selected readings, recommended podcasts and further resources.

This series is funded in part by a grant titled “Growing the Conversation on Science and Faith” from the John Templeton Foundation.

The Thomistic Institute was founded ten years ago and seeks to promote Catholic truth in the contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians especially at top-tier universities.—CNS

Pope: Lofty titles, friends won’t get you to heaven

BY JuNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

A

LIFE marked by humility, faith and love determines whether Christians enter heaven, not who they know, Pope Francis said.

Before praying the Angelus prayer with pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square, the pope said that the Lord will recognise those worthy of experiencing eternal joy if they have lived “a life of faith that translates into deeds” and not whether they have attended conferences or rubbed shoulders with Church leaders.

“The Lord does not recognise us by our titles,” he said. “‘Look, Lord, I belonged to this association; I was a friend of that bishop, of that cardinal, of that priest.’ No, titles do not

count,” he said.

In his main talk, the pope reflected on the Sunday Gospel reading from St Luke in which Jesus, while preaching in a village, is asked if only a few people will be saved.

Jesus’ response, the pope explained, doesn’t focus on how many will be admitted into heaven but rather on the duty of God’s children to “strive to enter through the narrow gate”.

“With these words, Jesus makes it clear that it isn’t a question of numbers, there isn’t a limited number in paradise! But it is a matter of following the right path now, and this right path is for everyone, but it is narrow,” he said.—CNS

Ghana’s Church recycles hazardous waste

BY DAMIAN AVEVOR

T

HE growing amount of waste generated by outdated computers, cellphones and electrical machinery poses serious environmental challenges around the world.

Recognising the difficulty, Caritas Ghana, the development agency of the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference, organised a workshop for faith-based organisations to help employees learn how to safely and effectively dispose of such items.

The programme stemmed from Pope Francis' social-environmental encyclical, Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home, and took participants through steps they can follow to adhere to the country’s standards governing what is commonly called e-waste.

Samuel Zan Akologo, executive

secretary of Caritas Ghana, said the bishops’ conference directed his agency to develop a comprehensive programme for responsibly disposing of waste. He stressed that the bishops are seeking to prevent potential damage to the environment, human health and livelihoods through improper disposal of electronic equipment.

The training, Mr Akologo explained, covered equipment beyond cellphones and computers and included air conditioners, fridges, television sets, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and even high-efficiency lightbulbs—all of which contain harmful chemicals and components.

Workshop participants learned that Ghana expects the disposal and recycling efforts will create up to 22 000 jobs for youth.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, September 4 to September 10, 2019

5

Why many Catholics doubt the Real Presence

BY ANNA CAPIZZI GALVEZ

D

O Catholics believe that the Eucharist is truly the body and blood of Christ?

A Pew Research Centre survey found that nearly 70% of Catholics in the United States believe that the bread and wine used for Communion during Mass are “symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ”, while about 30% believe that the bread and wine “actually become” Christ’s body and blood.

Some found the results an affirmation of their belief that catechesis in the Church is in a sorry state.

“It represents a massive failure— and I include myself in this, we’re all guilty—a massive failure on the part of Catholic educators and catechists, evangelists, teachers,” said Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron.

“If on this central matter of our belief and practice there is this much deep misunderstanding, something has gone substantially wrong.”

The survey’s finding “certainly shows a failure in catechetics, but I think the Church faces a greater problem”, Jesuit Father Thomas Reese wrote in a column for Religion News Service. “Catholics have an im-

poverished idea of what the Eucharist is really about.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church looks to the Council of Trent to define its eucharistic doctrine: “By the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation” (No. 1376).

Catholic theologians in the High Middle Ages turned to the Aristotelian philosophic categories of “substance” and “accidents” to expound the doctrine. Today, some argue those terms contribute to the confusion around the Eucharist.

“The accidents are those things that we see. We see a host. We see wine,” explained Fr Frank Donio, director of the Catholic Apostolate Centre in Washington. “The substance—the ‘breadness’ or the ‘wineness’—is what it is.”

By the words of consecration during the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass, the substance changes—transubstantiation—while the accidents re-

Pope Francis elevates the Eucharist as he celebrates Mass on the feast of Corpus Christi outside the basilica of St John Lateran in Rome. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) main the same.

It still looks like, acts like, tastes like bread or wine. But its substance has become the body and blood of Christ, Fr Donio said.

“The difficulty is that because we don’t help people to understand what that means, substance and ac-

Bishop, priest abducted over schools

S

OME bishops in Cameroon have urged Anglophone separatists to allow schools to reopen, after militants abducted a bishop and two priests for condemning the school shutdown campaign.

“All children deserve the right to education and a good future wherever they decide to spend their lives,” said members of the Bamenda provincial bishops’ conference.

“Many parents have been consistently deceived about their children’s education, while arguments about a lack of security are used to frighten and prevent them sending children to school.”

The three-page open letter was published after independence fighters in Cameroon’s north-west and south-west regions called for a new school shutdown.

The bishops said separatists had

burned schools and killed teachers who had defied past boycott demands and should now “approach the issue of schools with reason more than emotion”.

However, the letter also called on the government to “exercise more vigilance” over military units and ensure they remained “as far from schools as possible”.

“Schools are not barracks, and soldiers should not enter them unless invited by competent authorities,” the bishops said.

“Every state has a right to employ its military to protect citizens and defend its territorial integrity. However, it is also known that some military have used exaggerated force against innocent civilians and sometimes committed horrendous crimes against children,” they said.

The letter was published as

Bishop George Nkuo of Kumbo was freed by abductors five days after two of his priests were released by separatists.

Journal du Cameroun said all three had been detained in apparent retaliation for a homily by Bishop Nkuo, who condemned the school closures as a “crime against humanity and a great exploitation”. He called on Catholics to resist “the evil dragon of violence, torture and kidnappings”.

At least 2 000 people have been killed and 400 000 displaced during three years of army deployment in the Anglophone regions after protesting the encroachment of French-language controls.

Church leaders and human rights groups have condemned atrocities by both sides in the territories.— CNS

cidents, it’s harder for them to then understand what transubstantiation is,” he added. “We do need to assist people in understanding” those terms.

But do those ancient terms resonate with modern-day Catholics?

“Sometimes we struggle to articu-

late a post-Enlightenment understanding of what we mean by Real Presence” by relying on outdated vocabulary, said Michael Bayer, a director of evangelisation and adult formation in Chicago.

Fr Reese put it bluntly: “Using Aristotelian concepts to explain Catholic mysteries in the 21st century is a fool’s errand.”

It is possible to teach the doctrine of transubstantiation without using the words “substance” and “accidents”, said Prof Timothy O’Malley, professor and director of the Notre Dame Centre for Liturgy. But eventually it is the appropriate way to teach it, he said.

“If the word ‘substance’ scares people off, you can say: ‘What it really is’, and that is what substance is,” Prof O’Malley said. “What it really is, what it absolutely is at its heart is Christ’s body and blood.”

“The most helpful thing we can say is: ‘This really, truly, actually is Jesus, in a way that it was not prior to the act of consecration,’” Mr Bayer said. “It truly is Jesus and there’s an aspect to this we simply don’t understand.

Continued on page 11

Catholic doctors warn against HPV vaccination

BY FREDRICK NZWILI

C

ATHOLIC doctors in Kenya have warned against a mass cervical cancer vaccination programme for young girls, as the government accelerates plans to roll out the programme this month.

The Ministry of Health has said the vaccination is targeting the human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted infection that can cause cancer of the cervix. The vaccines will be available at 9 000 private, public and faith-based health facilities.

However, members of the Kenya Catholic Doctors’ Association expressed concern that the vaccine can cause severe side-effects, includ-

ing brain damage, seizures or paralysis.

The doctors also said the vaccine has not undergone necessary clinical trials in the country.

“We don’t think the vaccine is necessary. HVP is sexually transmitted and it does not make sense to vaccine everyone against a sexually transmitted disease that can be controlled through behaviour change,” Dr Wahome Ngare, a gynaecologist and member of the Catholic doctors group said.

“The side-effects are too risky for anyone to even dare,” he added.

For their part, the Kenya Catholic bishops’ conference has not offered an opinion on the vaccination programme.—CNS

Wildfires show urgency of Amazon synod

BY BARBARA FRASER

GR 00 TO T MATRIC

W

ILDFIRES raging in Bolivia and Brazil underscore the urgency of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon that Pope Francis has called for October, said Bishop Eugenio Coter of Pando in northern Bolivia.

Fires in the Bolivian Amazon have burned an area almost the size of Gauteng and left at least 50 families homeless.

By bringing together Church leaders, indigenous people and lay leaders to discuss issues that are important for the Catholic Church in the nine-country Amazon region, “the pope is making a prophetic gesture”, Bishop Coter said.

The devastation from the fires “shows that the pope is right— this is an emergency for humanity and for the Church,” he said.

Farmers in the Amazon basin often set fire to fields and pastures at this time of year to prepare land for planting. Hot temperatures and winds can quickly whip flames out of control, and most communities lack firefighting equipment.

The devastation is partly because of government policies that encourage farmers to clear more forest for cattle ranching, the bishop said.

In April, the Bolivian and Chinese governments signed an agreement that will allow Bolivia to export beef to China.

The Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade, which includes vari-

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A firefighter near Robore, Bolivia, holds a parrot in an area where wildfires have destroyed the forest. (Photo: David Mercado, Reuters/CNS) ous trade associations, among them livestock and timber groups, expects beef exports to total 20 million tons by the end of the year. The goal is to double that amount by the end of 2020, which will mean nearly doubling the number of cattle in the country.

In Brazil, fires also are burning in areas where industrial-scale farms and cattle ranches are expanding into the forest, especially along the southern and western edge of the Amazon.

Ironically, Bishop Coter said, both Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who leads a rightist government, and Bolivia’s leftist President Evo Morales, are implementing the same kinds of agricultural policies.

“The two countries most affected by fires have governments at opposite ends of the political

spectrum, but their position on deforesting the Amazon is the same,” he said. “There is no political or economic plan for the Amazon that does not depend on the extraction of natural resources.”

Bishop Coter and other Bolivian Church leaders are meeting in Cochabamba with delegates from the country’s Amazonian Church jurisdictions to prepare for the synod, set for October 627 in Rome.

The bishop said he hopes the synod will encourage people to pressure their governments for policies that will protect the Amazon forest and the livelihoods of the people living there.

The current emergency in the region “shows clearly that we are all interconnected”, he said, “and this affects the entire world”.— CNS

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6

The Southern Cross, September 4 to September 10, 2019

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The echoes of 1934

P

OPE Francis last month sounded a warning from history when he noted that much of the current political rhetoric reminded him of the populism applied by Adolf Hitler in 1934, as the Nazis were entrenching their power in Germany.

As we mark the 80th anniversary this month of the start of World War II, and the horror this conflagration created, the pope’s remarks serve to warn us not only about today but also to caution us on what such rhetoric can lead to.

The pope’s comments in an interview with the Italian daily La Stampa are not the first time he has rebuked the populist rhetoric of nationalism, exclusion, division, fear-mongering and selfishness.

In 2017 he recalled the Germans of the early 1930s as “a people who were immersed in a crisis, who were searching for their identity until this charismatic leader came and promised to give their identity back—and he gave them a distorted identity, and we all know what happened”.

He obviously sees parallels with current political developments.

The Holocaust started with propaganda which in print, in speeches, on film, in caricatures portrayed Jews in such a way as to legitimise prejudice against them. That propaganda was used to justify the merciless persecution of Jews, or at least encouraged acquiescence in it.

It is notable that when US President Donald Trump declared his candidacy for the White House, he propagated prejudice against migrants from Latin America in words that came straight out of the textbook for racist propaganda: “They’re bringing drugs.

They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

Four years later we see largescale deportations which are tearing families and communities apart. One priest in Mississippi reported having lost half of his parishioners in deportation round-ups.

We see detention camps where children are separated from their parents, and where conditions are abysmal.

Helping undocumented immigrants is now illegal in the US. Critics have described that as the criminalisation of solidarity.

Large parts of the US public seem to have accepted, or even welcomed, the policies of their

president, which even his supporters in the US episcopate have criticised (though without mounting great moral outrage).

Much as Germans stood by as their Jewish neighbours were taken away, so are Americans standing by as their Hispanic neighbours are rounded up.

The populism of Mr Trump is by no means unique. We hear echoes of ot in South Africa, too.

In Europe, anti-migrant and xenophobic sentiment has empowered right-wing movements in virtually every country; in some, they are governing.

Their rise in legitimacy has been accompanied by an increase in hate crimes against minorities and perceived enemies.

That is no coincidence; political incorrectness has gone mad.

One must, of course, blame the populists for the fear and prejudice that they spread with their divisive rhetoric, but the willing recipients of their hatemongering are likewise to blame, for they have a choice and they have access to alternative information—both liberties which Germans were starting to be deprived of in 1934.

Distressingly, many Christians subscribe to the rhetoric of hate, or at least acquiesce in it. There may be many good reasons for it—agreement with other policy areas, or the illusory promise of stability, or old-fashioned partisanship—but these are not good enough to reject the demands of the Gospel.

The Gospel commands us to stand in solidarity with the weak, the poor, the oppressed, the persecuted, the reviled. When we fail to do so—when we fail to stand with the aborted child or the drowning migrant or the deported mother—we fail Christ.

At this perilous time of brutal rhetoric, racist policies, increasing hate crimes and intolerance, the Church has to take its lead from Pope Francis and give prophetic witness.

The Church has to speak out loudly and with courage against all injustice, wherever in the world, even if that comes at a political cost.

The Church—from the pope to the faithful in the pews—has to bring the Christ of the Beatitudes into the public forum.

And when we hear the echoes of Germany’s 1934 in today’s political discourse, we must hold up Christ’s love for the weak and the persecuted as an antidote to the populists’ messages of hate.

Building a peaceful city

T

HE environment on the outskirts of Johannesburg and of any big city is changing quickly.

Large areas that used to be covered by grassland, bush or pastures are becoming covered by shacks.

There seems to have been little planning for the provision of water, electricity or sanitation.

This rapid and apparently uncontrollable influx of people into our large cities is part of a worldwide phenomenon. The present form of neoliberal capitalism and globalisation is causing the deepening and spreading of inequality and poverty as well as fear. It forces people to migrate to find livelihood and security.

The influx of people from different countries, even continents, renders cities like Johannesburg multinational, multilingual, multicultural and multireligious. Capitalism as promoted in these cities, promotes the creation of areas that are luxurious, well serviced and protected; also much larger areas where accommodation is poor, mostly overcrowded and poorly serviced. Often crime and gangsterism are present there, and criminals hide in these areas, Michael Ignatieff, in his book Ordinary Virtues, has some sugges-

Thankful for the Church’s work

T

HANK you Fr Stan Muyebe OP, coordinator of the bishops’ conference’s Justice & Peace Commission for what J&P has been able to achieve, through the courts, for sick gold miners, as reported in the August 14 issue.

This is when I feel so thankful for the Church.

May your efforts on behalf of sick coalminers also result in success.

May God bless all your work!

Merrilyn de Gersigny, Durban

Why I oppose the homo-tyranny

T

ONY Meehan claims that I concluded that all homosexuals are going to hell (August 14). Not true.

It wasn’t me; it was St Paul who said so.

We cannot do without judging.

Any time we make a decision, we have made a judgment before.

One day we will judge the Angels in heaven. Let us, therefore, practise a bit down here.

St Paul admonishes us to judge those who belong to the Church (1 Co 5:13). How do we judge those who never go to confession, but

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Name and address of the writer must be supplied. No anonymous letter will be considered.

tions. Talk about justice and human rights is important, but this alone will not empower people to live together peacefully.

More important, he suggests, will be the effort of all to acknowledge and protect the humanity of each other.

Practising the “ordinary virtues”—such as tolerance, readiness to forgive, trust and a basic loving care for each other—are vital. It is these virtues that will urge me to interact and talk with my neighbours and help to act as a glue, even in the darkness of our slums.

Johannesburg scene (Photo: Jacques Nel/unsplash)

hese virtues help to establish a moral consensus that is the foundation for a nonviolent life and even for cooperation.

The traditional cultures, value systems and religions in which people have grown up may not be suppressed but they need to be brought together and acknowledged to help build a multicultural and a functional town and world.

The wellbeing and economic power of different groups should not be used to suppress minorities.

Through dialogue the needs of the community and of the individual can be identified and addressed.

Tasks and obligations need to be

named and shared by all and for all. This form of ethics is necessary for the peaceful and fruitful functioning of the community.

Since our future will be more and more influenced by a multiplicity of cultural and religious differences, we need to learn how to facilitate dialogue and how to build consensus on the communal and national levels.

Religious traditions and value systems will need to form an essential part of these consultations.

Care for the establishment and maintenance of our environment—which is life-giving to humans, plants and animals—will also need to be part of communal consultations.

Sr Angelika Laub OP, Pretoria

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Letters must not be understood to necessarily reflect the teachings, disciplines or policies of the Church accurately. letters can be sent to PO Box 2372, cape town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

quently homosexual love is as good as heterosexual love.

For them, the condemnations of homosexuality in the Bible have exceeded their expiry date. They regard them as out of date in the modern world.

But those who still stick to the books of the Bible will know that homosexual love is a sin that cries to heaven for vengeance.

JH Goossens, Pretoria

T

present themselves for Holy Communion?

In the same issue, Paul Collins wonders why I write so much about homosexuality.

I do so because I want to instruct the ignorant about the false prophets of the homolobby.

These overwhelm us with melodramatic representations of gay people as innocent victims of discrimination and social oppression.

While the faithful are lectured about their mercilessness, gays continue unabashedly to live their lives in immorality. These false prophets tyrannise the faithful with their propaganda of the dogma of biological causation and the immutability of the homosexual disorder.

They profess the “gospel of bornthat-way”.

Their homo-tyranny has but one purpose: to persuade the faithful that love is love and that conse-

Obsessed indeed

I

AGREE with Paul Collins (August 14) that J H Goossens seems to have an unhealthy obsession with homosexuality—”Methinks he doth protest too much.”

The concept that a loving Creator would condemn his creation to a place of dreadful suffering because they are the way God made them is unthinkable.

Letters like those by Dr Goossens must be so hurtful to our gay Catholic brothers and sisters.

I am very pleased to see similar letters to that of Mr Collins in defence of gay people from Tony Meehan and Neil Cochran.

The silent majority must continue to express such views from the grassroots level to effect a change in thinking. Justice cries out for it!

June Boyer, Johannesburg

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PERSPECTIVES

How to be a beautiful woman S KEWED ideas of femininity convince us that womanhood can be bought in the form of prosthetic enhancements or anti-ageing products, thus reducing femininity to capital.

Globally, the selfie-culture and competing images of beauty circulate on our television screens and web pages, increasing our consumption of women and thus reinforcing the objectification of women, including those doing the consuming.

In the African context, womanhood is associated with loss, violence and erasure: the killing and burning of women such as in the case of Karabo Mokoena, the corrective rape perpetrated on the black lesbian community, and a whole 16 days a year dedicated to the awareness that women and children must not be abused—as though it is okay for such abuse to happen for the other 349 days of the year.

I struggled to come into my “womanhood”, and I know many other young girls can relate to that. I had left it to men, peers, television and alcohol to decide for me who I was, what my body meant, who I should be, and who I wanted to become.

It never worked for me. I never felt good enough, no matter how much I tried. I sought external validation for something that I was never convinced of in the first place: that I am beautiful inside.

My body and my aspirations to perfect its features fast became how I would primarily relate to my womanhood. My body would make him think I’m beautiful, my hair would give me the confidence I needed, thoughts of my intelligence would make me believe that there was more to me—but my heart and self-esteem would remain broken.

In the thick of my heartbreak from a failed relationship, starting at a new school and returning to the broken situation of my childhood home, God granted me unmerited favour. I was to be rebirthed into newness.

On a pilgrimage to Ngome, I met the woman who prayed for that same grace

and inspired my same change. The woman who would change my world by changing my mind and more powerfully, my heart, was Our Blessed Lady and our Mother, Mary. She transformed my guilt, sinfulness and hurt and into power, beauty and love.

M

y encounter with Mother Mary as a woman taught me what true beauty could mean for me— beauty is the feeling aroused within us when we think about God. Beauty is in humility: knowing who you are before God, nothing more and nothing less.

Beauty is what you become when you learn to love and accept who you are.

Beauty is seen when you make it about someone else, because Christ made it all about you.

I don’t want to be reductionist in my association of womanhood with beauty.

There is a whole lot more to being a woman than just being beautiful. My aim here is simply to shed light on the fact that although it may not be all of it, it is often a strong part of it.

The face of the Blessed Virgin Mary by uS artist Rip Caswell. Mary contravenes almost every expression of womanhood proposed by secular society, writes Obakeng Kgongoane. (Photo courtesy Rip Caswell via CNS)

What’s our heritage?

O UR family and our cultural backgrounds have a great influence on the new families we form. Ways of being and traditions—social and religious—in marriage and family relationships from two families have to merge, and each has to be respected.

Practical everyday things as well as our spiritual heritage should ideally become a shared experience.

“For believers in Jesus Christ, the Word of God who became man for our sake, the life of the spirit is not dissociated from the body or from nature or from worldly realities, but lived in and with them, in communion with all that surrounds us,” Pope Francis writes in his 2015 social encyclical Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home).

Although Laudato Si’ is not new to me, my eyes were opened by this quote to a broader vision for heritage and culture, and I found a better way to bring ecology into my family-thinking.

A chapter on “Integral Ecology” has sections on “Environmental, Economic and Social Ecology”, “Ecology of Daily Life”, and the “Principle of the Common Good”.

All of these have something to say about families. That warrants study and reflection in faith-sharing settings.

“The analysis of environmental problems cannot be separated from the analysis of human, family, work-related and urban contexts and their interrelatedness,” the pope says in Laudato Si’.

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Pope Francis’ document Laudato Si’ is not just about “green” issues but addresses social issues as well, as Toni Rowland explains. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) Social ecology is necessarily institutional and extends from the family right up to international communities. The strength and effectiveness of institutions is a core social factor and issues such as respect for the law—by individuals, corporations and governments—is a universal phenomenon, Pope Francis writes.

Respect for the law can just be a general matter, but when considered in the context of the environment, do countries and big companies take notice of laws about pollution or carbon emissions?

L

audato Si’ highlights that history, architecture, language and traditions are cultural treasures to be guarded and protected.

This is being taken quite seriously in South

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Obakeng Kgongoane

Point of Reflection

Popular conceptions of beauty and womanhood inside and outside the Church leave little room for Mary’s example. She seems all too far away from who we as “worldly” women could ever be.

Mary was purposefully created by God to be the “fairest of them all”, and that is not the same intention that God created us for. We are not the birth house of salvation. We are mere sinful human beings put on this earth and told to do things right, with very little knowledge of “right”.

But seeing Mary in this way, I believe, diminishes why she was especially chosen: For the glory of God. As are we!

God sets her as the “Prima Maestra” of all women, our Mother Superior, not so she can taunt us with the impossibility of being her, but to let us know that it is completely possible, even in this image saturated society, to be you.

In the limitation of my words, I cannot adequately describe just who Mary is as divine woman, but I can point to the things her example has taught me: A woman is humble—not exploitable.

God-centred—not self-centred. Modest— in everything. Pure—not perfect and graceful. Her example is therefore not impossible, but it is a challenge for us as women.

It’s a challenge because she contravenes almost every expression of womanhood that the secular world wants to convince us to become.

To understand yourself through her means to forsake the things that ultimately hurt and prevent your evolution.

You must be bold and beautiful; beautiful because you are so bold. You must love the Christ whom she leads us to. n Obakeng Kgongoane is a lecturer in visual studies at the University of Pretoria.

Toni Rowland

Family Friendly

Africa; take the battles over language teaching, or the ongoing struggle to address the history of forced removals in places like District Six in Cape Town, which lately made news.

A consumerist vision can have a levelling effect. Even fashions in clothes, the media, music and the arts can override cultural diversity. However, since local culture is part of the shared identity of each place, there is still an attraction to maintaining and visiting unique places and absorbing their vibes.

As always, Pope Francis focuses strongly on the damages of poverty and the effect of environmental degradation on the poor.

Noise, overcrowding, lack of privacy and open spaces, ugliness and dirt can breed violence, criminality and instability. At the same time, the pope commends “an admirable creativity and generosity is shown by those able to alleviate the adverse effects of their surroundings”.

He describes how “the feeling of asphyxiation brought on by densely populated residential areas is countered if close and warm relationships develop, community is created and a person can feel held within a network of solidarity and belonging”.

The pope, who as archbishop of Buenos Aires was known for his closeness to that city’s poor, suggests that “any place can Continued on page 11

The Southern Cross, September 4 to September 10, 2019

Fr Pierre Goldie

7

Christ in the World

God gives what we don’t share

G

OD has provided generously for our physical needs, as the Gospel of Matthew tells us (6:25-34).

He is a provident God who has blessed us with resources and talents to “subdue” the earth (Gen 1:28) and provide a dignified lifestyle for all. But is this a global reality?

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) shows that in most years there is enough food produced for all, but it estimates that some 800 million people experience food insecurity and hunger.

A similar number of people are classified obese, so for some there is too little food and for others there is too much.

The global distribution of world Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008 shows that the bottom 20% of the 7,6 billion people in the world account for 1,2% of GDP, the next 60% account for 19,1% of GDP, and the top 20% account for 79,7% of the world economic output.

There is persistent food insecurity for those at the lower levels, malnutrition, lack of medical facilities, inadequate schooling and amenities.

Even if the FAO reports there is enough for all, it is not reaching all people. Also, if there is not enough, it is because substantial productive facilities are dedicated to arms and luxury goods.

Trillions are spent on arms, and billions on research to make more effective weapons. You can spend millions on a car that goes from 0 to 100km per hour in 2,6 seconds, but how does this measure against debilitating poverty?

I am not in the slightest bit envious of those who own these amazing cars, but I am concerned for those who live in poverty, who do not even have enough food.

Where is God’s providence? What is stifling his generous endowment of resources meant for all people, in accordance with the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the universal destination of goods, not to mention the right to dignified living conditions?

I

f only 5% of 2,3 billion Christians say the Lord’s Prayer every day, why are some 100 million requests to “give us this day our daily bread” ostensibly being ignored by God? Or should the words of Jesus in the multiplication of the loaves apply to those who have a comfortable surplus?

When confronted by his puzzled disciples, he said: “Give them something to eat yourselves” (Lk 9:13).

In other words, it is through those with more than enough that the request in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us our daily bread”, is meant to be answered. God is saying that it is we who are the response to the requests for “daily bread”.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31) places a radical responsibility on the rich to assist the poor.

There is the equivalent of a low-intensity social revolution in South Africa, manifest in crime and all the service delivery protests made by those who experience the daily indignity of lack of food, sanitation, sewerage, even basic health care, electricity, and education, one means of attempting to lifting oneself up from poverty.

The theologian and economist Prof Klaus Nürnberger, formerly of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, contends that “competition in a ‘free’ market has led to discrepancies in productivity, income and life chances between individuals, groups and countries and continents that dwarf those of feudalism” (my emphasis).

This is indeed an ominous observation. There are some 7 million unemployed youth in South Africa. Poor living conditions multiply the chances of people turning to crime, another dark part of the social revolution.

Pope John Paul II predicted that future generations would judge this generation for its failure to feed the people, while Pope Francis observes a high degree of “globalised indifference”, where the poor are statistics soon forgotten.

I fear that the Bible passage referring to feeding the poor and sending the rich away hungry (cf Luke 1:53) is a form of biblical condemnation. Would it apply to a famous actress who recently spent $1 million on her birthday celebration?

There are those who want their names inserted into the latest Who’s Who of society, but when we meet the Lord, I am convinced we will have a burning desire to impress him.

It is the heavenly bank account that will impress him. n Fr Pierre Goldie is a priest of the archdiocese of Cape Town.

8

The Southern Cross, September 4 to September 10, 2019

COMMUNITY Grade 10 life science and geography learners at Holy Family College in Glenmore, Durban, went on an excursion to the Beachwood Mangroves, accompanied by teachers Irlene Ross and Sophie Govender.

Aranda Textiles in Randfontein donated 20 baby blankets to the new Sharing A Little Hope project of Marist Brothers Linmeyer College in Johannesburg. Founded by alumni Lyle Robson (2017 headboy) and Busisiwe Radebe (2017 headgirl), Sharing A Little Hope assists people in need in Addo, Eastern Cape, with soup kitchens, food and blanket drives, and entrepreneurship and mathematics programmes. Seen here are Marist Brothers Linmeyer Grade 11 student Nikiesha José with a mother and son from Valencia informal settlement in Addo.

St Francis of Assisi parish in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng, celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa with a Mass said

by Fr Radosław Szymoniak. The feast day was a time of fellowship for Polish parishioners.

(Submitted by Elaine Prosper)

Send your photos to

pics@scross.co.za

Assumption Convent in Germiston, Johannesburg archdiocese, appointed its new headgirl and prefects for 2019/2020. They are (front from left) Belinda Paine (head of culture), Marion Vetten (environmental head), Abigael Mwakassa (environmental head), Erin Lewis (academic head), Keabetsoe Matshoge (administrative head), Carey Ejike (head of religion) and Neville Workman (principal).

Back from left: Michela Barecchia (house captain of Rosaria), Daniella Jesus (house captain of Paulist), Gabriella Moreira (head of sport), Genevieve Reid (headgirl), and Lisa Godwin (deputy headgirl and house captain of Assumpta).

A group of 48 pilgrims spent a week at Ngome Marian Shrine in KwaZulu-Natal.

Fr Alexander Beukes of upington, Northern Cape, was spiritual director, and Linda Johns of St Anne’s parish in Retreat, Cape Town, was the pilgrims’ leader.

John Paul II Preschool in Port Shepstone, umzimkulu diocese, run

by Little Servants of Mary Immaculate Sisters, received an award from the health department.

The certificates were presented by provincial health promotion manager Gloria Rasi and district health promotion manager Mavis Munsami.

(Submitted by Zithobile Zondi)

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The Catholic Women’s League branch of Our Lady of Fatima parish in Durban North attended Mass in the city’s Emmanuel cathedral and then had tea, served by the deaf, at the Denis Hurley Centre.

(Submitted by Anna Accolla)

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BY ERIN CARELSE

A Bishop Frank Nubuasah greets Botswana’s First Lady, Neo Masisi, after his installation as bishop of Gaborone. The 70-year-old bishop had previously headed the diocese of Francistown, also in Botswana, since 1998. Bishop Nubuasah, a member of the Society of the Divine Word, is flanked by Archbishop Dabula Mpako of Pretoria (left) and Bishop Victor Phalana of Klerksdorp.

Good ship Pope Francis A

BY COURTNEY GROGAN

HOSPITAL ship named after Pope Francis is sailing on the Amazon to bring medical care to rural populations.

“Just as Jesus, who appeared walking on water, calmed the storm and strengthened the faith of the disciples, this boat will bring spiritual comfort and calm to the worries of needy men and women, abandoned to their fate,” Pope Francis said in a letter sent to mark the ship’s launch in Belém, Brazil.

“In addition to being a beautiful concrete gesture in view of the Synod of Bishops for Amazon [in the Vatican in October], this river hospital is above all a response to the Lord's mandate, who continues to send his disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick,” the pope said, according to Vatican News.

The hospital boat is the initiative of the Fraternity of St Francis of Assisi in the Providence of God in partnership with their local diocese and the Brazilian government.

The Brazilian Franciscans were inspired to create the floating hospital when Pope Francis visited their healthcare facility during World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. During

the visit, the pope encouraged Friar Francisco Belotti to expand his religious order’s charitable works into the Amazon region.

The boat, 32m in length, contains an operating room and analysis laboratory, and is able to provide a range of medical services, including X-rays, vaccinations, electrocardiograms, mammograms, and ultrasounds.

The “Barco Hospital Papa Francisco” will travel along the Amazon River to reach people who live in communities in the Amazon only accessible by river.

It is staffed by 20 medical volunteers, ten crew members, and a Franciscan boat director for each ten-day voyage.—CNA

PRIEST from the Free State says his appointment as the Superior of the general house of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Rome is an exciting opportunity for the South African Oblates to respond to the needs of the congregation and the Church at large.

Fr Mokone Joseph Rathakoa now is in charge of the Oblates’ headquarters on Rome’s Via Aurelia, just over 2km from St Peter’s basilica.

The general house comprises three Oblate communities: the congregation’s central government comprising the superior-general and his council (11 members), the International Roman Scholasticate (19 members) and 28 Oblates residing in Rome.

Fr Rathakoa’s responsibilities as the superior of the general house involve leading and coordinating the life of the community, facilitating communication among the three communities living on the same property, and hospitality.

“One needs to be conversant in Italian as well as have a comfortable knowledge of other languages because of the multicultural dynamic of an international congregation,” Fr Rathakoa told The Southern Cross.

Fr Rathakoa said that he was thankful to his predecessor, Fr Thomas Klosterkamp, for his guidance and smooth handover since his appointment.

Fr Neil Frank, provincial of the OMI province of Southern Africa, said that the local congregation is proud that the central government had chosen one of their brothers from South Africa.

“It is the first time we have a superior from Africa, and Fr Rathakoa’s gentle, amiable nature will be much appreciated in this international setting,” Fr Frank said.

Born in 1965 in Grieselsdam, Free State, Fr Rathakoa entered Oblate formation in 1988, professed his first vows on February 6, 1991, at Our Lady of Hope novitiate in Germiston,

Fr Mokone Rathakoa OMI, the superior of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate’s general House in Rome.

Johannesburg.

As a scholastic, he had his initial formation at St Joseph’s Theological Institute, Cedara, from 1990-93, and continued in Rome at the International Scholasticate from 1993-96.

After professing the final vows in December 1995, he returned to South Africa. On December 6, 1997, he was ordained a priest at his home parish of Emmaus in Botshabelo, archdiocese of Bloemfontein.

He worked as a formator in the pre-novitiate in Rayton, Gauteng, from 1997 to 2000.

Fr Rathakoa was then sent to Rome, to study at the Institute of Psychology of the Gregorian University, from 2000-04, to equip himself with more knowledge and the skills needed for a formator.

On his return, he worked at St Joseph’s Theological Institute from 2004-09.

Continued on page 2

S o u t h e r n C r o s s Pilgrimage HOLY LAND & OBERAMMERGAU PASSION PLAY 21 Aug - 2 Sept. 2020 Led by Archbishop William Slattery OFM For more information or to book, please contact Gail at info@fowlertours.co.za or phone/WhatsApp 076 352‐3809

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IT’S WORTH IT!

The church of the Resurrection in Dawn Park, Boksburg, celebrated the first sacrament of matrimony since its opening. Maggie and Chancy Vasulu from Thyolo district in Malawi were married by Fr Peter Wilson OFM. The Dawn Park community embraced the migrant couple by helping to cook meals, arrange flowers, sew wedding gowns and suits, and organise photography and transport for the couple. (Submitted by Modjadji Motupa)

Br Keotshepile Berry Mathulwe made his first vows as a Redemptorist before the order’s provincial, Fr Gerard McCabe, at the parish of the Most Holy Redeemer in Bergvliet, Cape Town.

FAITH

The Southern Cross, September 4 to September 10, 2019

9

The story of the True Cross of Christ For the September 14 feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, GüNTHER SIMMERMACHER looks at the history of the True Cross, which was recovered in 326 AD.

guarded by the deacons standing around, in case anyone approaching should venture to do so again,” Egeria wrote.

The Cross was first lost in the sack of Jerusalem in 614, when the Persian King Chosroas II took it as part of his loot. When Persia was defeated by the Emperor Heraclius in 629, the Cross was returned to Jerusalem.

According to tradition, Heraclius wished to carry the returned Cross personally to the church of the Holy Sepulchre: on September 14, the anniversary of the church’s dedication. But before he could even move the cross, the story has it, he had to remove his royal garments and don the cloth of the repentant sinner instead.

was quite ambitious, more so since Constantine, for all his Christian sentiments, had not disavowed pagan worship.

Constantine gave permission for the temple to be torn down and the tomb to be excavated.

Discovery of Calvary

Back in Jerusalem, Macarius set to work. The Roman temple was dismantled. Luckily, the Romans HEN the Church cele- had built it on a platform with rebrates the feast of the Tri- taining walls, filling the hollow beumph (or Exaltation) of neath with soil and debris. Once the Cross on September 14, it re- the debris was removed, Team members the recovery of the True Macarius found the area pretty Cross of Christ in Jerusalem in the much as Hadrian had left it 200 years earlier. year 326 AD. The Christians had always It is a special day especially for churches which have a relic of the known where the cross once stood. reputed True Cross. Some of them So when the Romans placed a are famous—Notre-Dame in Paris, statue of the goddess of love, Santa Croce in Rome, the cathedrals Aphrodite (or Venus), on that spot, of Pisa and Florence, the monastery it scandalised the local Christians of Santo Toribio de Liébana in down the generations.

The tomb of Christ’s burial and Spain, Koutloumousiou monastery on Mount Athos and so on—and resurrection was identified as well, most probably thanks to many others are parish devotional inscriptions churches.

Christians left there by early ChrisAnd don’t believe the (admittedly amusing) knew that the tians (as they did at other holy places, such as quip that if you put all the reputed pieces of the Romans had Peter’s house in Capernaum). cross together, you’d have placed a Constantine was ina forest. The known relics formed of the discoveries of the True Cross would statue of and he responded by yield no more than a Aphrodite on sending his mother St Hebranch. lena, who had converted Complicating matters, the spot of to Christianity even besome claimed relics of the fore its toleration, to the True Cross are medieval Christ’s Holy Land. forgeries.

When she arrived, In 325 AD, Church crucifixion everything was set for leaders from around the construction to begin— Christian world came together for the First Council of and not only at Golgotha but also Nicaea (present-day Turkey), to set- in other places, such as the church tle matters of theology, particularly of the Nativity in Bethlehem; another site signposted by the Romans the Arian heresy.

Attending the meeting were the with a temple.

Our image of Helena might be Roman Emperor Constantine, who 12 years earlier had legalised Chris- that of an ethereally pious pilgrim, tianity and strongly sympathised possessed of intrepid archaeological with it, and the bishop of genius and a virtuous humility befitting the Mother of Christian EuJerusalem, St Macarius.

Macarius approached Constan- rope.

Helena’s character might well tine with a view to get permission to tear down a temple which Em- have embraced all these commendperor Hadrian had built almost two able qualities, but she was also a centuries earlier over Golgotha, the ruthless dynasty-builder who by site of Christ’s crucifixion and res- shrewd political manoeuvres helped urrection. The bishop’s hope was to ensure that her son would become emperor. build a chapel there.

And just a year or so before her Here we must remember that Christians had no churches as we pilgrimage, she was involved in a know them before the religion’s le- chain of intrigue that led to the galisation in 313 AD. Mass was cel- murder of her daughter-in-law ebrated in residences—house Fausta, Constantine’s wife. It’s safe churches—which sometimes were to say that Helena’s sanctity was not clandestinely converted into places entirely stainless.

The pious stories of Helena of worship. So Macarius’ request

W

Loss of the True Cross The magnificent church of the Holy Sepulchre survived not only Pilgrims at the stone of unction on the ground floor of the church of the the Persian sack but also fires and Holy Sepulchre. Above it is the site of the crucifixion of Christ. (Photos: natural disasters for centuries— Günther Simmermacher) until it was razed by the mad caliph Al-Hakim in 1009. sleuthing the Holy Land for the au- rally regarded as the Church’s greatThe Christians had seen the dark thentic sites relating to Christ are est treasure. clouds gathering, and hid the Cross exaggerated, as if the descendants before the church was destroyed.

Eyewitness from 381 AD of the first Christians in Jerusalem The Crusaders rebuilt it in the The pilgrim Egeria described a early 1100s. The church of the Holy really needed a pilgrim from Rome telling them what they had known Good Friday service in the church Sepulchre, with the shrine of the of the Holy Sepulchre in for generations. crucifixion and the around 381. tomb of the ResurrecSt Helena: Relic hunter St Helena “The silver-gilt casket, tion, still stands today, Helena had a keen interest in which contains the holy almost 900 years later. divided the relics relating to the crucifixion, wood of the Cross, is set With the arrival of some of which she took home to before [the bishop], Cross into three the Crusaders, the Cross Rome with her, such as parts of the opened. The holy wood was retrieved from its equal parts: hiding place, and the reputed INRI inscription, the Titu- and the inscription are lus Crucis, which is now kept in the taken out and placed on could venerate one each for faithful Santa Croce church in Rome’s the table. it again on special days.

Gerusalemme district.

“The deacons who It was lost for good Jerusalem, She also took the reputed nails of stand around it guard it on July 4, 1187, when the cross. According to her contem- while all the people, both Rome, and the bishop of Acre carporary St Ambrose, the famous faithful and catechuried it as the army stanbishop of Milan, she sent two of mens, come one by one, Constantinople dard into the Crusaders’ them to her son the emperor, who bow before the table, decisive battle with Salfixed one of them to his helmet and touch the cross and the adin at the Horns of Hattin. the other to his horse’s bridle. inscription, first with their foreThe Saracens defeated the CruOne of these reputed nails of the heads, then with their eyes; and, saders. The bishop was among the cross is now in Rome’s Santa Croce after kissing the cross, they move dead, and the cross was taken, rechurch, another in the Duomo in on,” the pilgrim reported more portedly attached upside down on Milan, and a third in an iron crown than 1600 years ago. a lance, and sent to Damascus, kept in the cathedral of Monza.

“And because someone is said to never to be seen again.

On May 3, 327, Helena, or those have bitten off and stolen a portion n Günther Simmermacher is the auwho did the digging for her, found of the sacred wood, it is thus thor of The Holy Land Trek. these items with three crosses and the crown of thorns in a disused cistern, what is now the chapel of the Finding of the Cross, the lowest point in the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

A test was required to determine which one of the three crosses was the genuine instrument of Christ’s crucifixion.

For the investigation, a noble woman of ailing health was brought forth. When the first cross touched her, nothing happened. The second cross, nothing. But when the third cross touched her, she was spontaneously healed of her illness. And thus the supposed True Cross was identified.

By the time the church of the Holy Led by Archbishop Sepulchre was dedicated, on September William Slattery OFM 14, 335 (hence the 21 Aug to 2 Sept 2020 date of the feast of the Triumph of the Cross), Helena was long gone.

To book contact Gail at Before she left, she info@fowlertours.co.za divided the Cross into or phone 076 352-3809 three equal parts: a Performed only every 10 years! third remained in www.fowlertours.co.za/passion Jerusalem; another portion went to Rome; the third was taken to Constantinople.

The Jerusalem part of the cross remained in the custody of the bishop of Jerusalem (soon upgraded to patriarch), and was natu-

Passion Pilgrimage 2020

Holy Land & Oberammergau Passion Play

A depiction of St Helena in the chapel of the Finding of the Cross in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. The chapel mareks the place where the three crosses were found in a cistern in 326 AD.

10

The Southern Cross, September 4 to September 10, 2019

LIFE

Giving care to the vulnerable Twenty years ago, Nazareth House was famous for its pioneering care for “Aids Babies”. ERIN CARELSE visited the Cape Town facilities of Nazareth Care and shares her experience.

N

ESTLED at the foot of Cape Town’s landmark Table Mountain is Nazareth House, founded by the Sisters of Nazareth.

An organisation that began as a humble dream for change has now become a place where the most vulnerable in society find sanctuary, love, and hope.

Nazareth House opened its doors in 1882 when a small group of Sisters arrived from London at the request of Bishop John Leonard of Cape Town with the purpose of providing care for the children and elderly who needed it the most.

Today, more than a century later, Nazareth Care spans the southern African region, with a wide variety of care facilities and outreach centres in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Kimberley, and Harare.

Lately, the various care programmes of the Nazareth Houses throughout South Africa have undergone a rebranding to become Nazareth Care, to provide a more holistic view of their services.

Arriving in Vredehoek, I was warmly welcomed and taken on a guided tour of the premises. One of the first things I noticed was the beautiful gardens and recreational areas that provide residents with a welcoming and friendly place to spend time together with their families and visitors.

The environment is stable, secure and loving. It feels like a home away from home, which is what Nazareth Care aims to provide.

I also met some of the dedicated and hardworking staff who take evident pride in the genuine care they provide for the wellbeing of the residents.

But, as so often, issues of funding are a constant concern.

Even with government support, the gap between what the organisation needs and what it receives is ever-increasing, and so Nazareth Care relies on the public’s support.

Child & Youth Care Centre At Cape Town Nazareth Care, the Child and Youth Care Centre (CYCC) is specifically registered to

fees in these cases, it does pay for stationery and school clothes.

The other children attend daycare centres/crèches to promote social interaction and development, which is another cost the organisation covers.

Transport is another huge cost.

This includes daily transport to and from multiple schools each day, as well as multiple daily trips to local clinics, hospital, and care centres for emergency care and standard regular medical appointments with medical specialists.

At the centre, the staff does not show the concerns about finances: Sr Anne Margaret Craig, the rethe Sisters and staff get the children gional superior of Nazareth House’s ready for their daily routines, hanSouthern African Region dling them with so much care.

Everyone has a smile on their face, care for children with disabilities and the atmosphere is jovial. and chronic and/or life-limiting In a corner of the room, one of health conditions. the older children is enjoying a visit Two decades ago, the facility be- with a family member. It was a bitcame a well-known cause even out- tersweet scene because some of the side the Catholic community for its other children there won’t get to expioneering care for “Aids Babies”. perience that.

Even international celebrities would Sr Anne Margaret Craig, regional pop in to lend support. superior of Nazareth House SouthToday, it accommodates children ern African Region, has been with from 0-18 years, the majority of the home since 1986. She said the them have multiple diagnoses. saddest and most difficult situation Common conditions include is for someone to be completely cerebral palsy, severe epilepsy, spina alone in the world—not just physibifida, foetal alcohol syndrome, cally but also emotionally and spirDown syndrome, imitually. paired hearing, and im“To be without a paired vision. sense of belonging, not Stable, secure knowing Some children are one’s ‘roots’, placed at Nazareth Care and loving, the not having family memfor committal stays (long bers, not sharing the periods of two or more environment same blood, the same years) or temporary safety name, and not being feels like a able placements (up to 90 to experience a cardays). All of them come ing, loving supportive rehome away from previously disadvanlationship with close taged and impoverished from home family members… most communities. of us cannot even begin The centre can accomto imagine what this can modate a maximum of 40 children feel like,” she said. at one time and it currently has 39.

Sr Craig said that every effort is The facility is usually full to capac- made to give the children the love ity, and vacancies are generally and care they so desperately need— filled rapidly due to the critical care but they can never replace the love and residential needs of children and sense of belonging that comes with severe disabilities and pallia- from a real close family bond. tive conditions.

“For many years we have reAs a state-registered CYCC, ceived abandoned and orphaned Nazareth Care receives a govern- babies and small children into ment subsidy to provide for the Nazareth Care and these numbers children in its care. escalated so quickly as the Aids panBut that doesn’t cover the com- demic began,” she said. plex medical needs of the children “As these children grew, their who receive holistic care from reg- biggest question was always, istered nurses, staff nurses, occupa- ‘Where/who is my mother, my famtional therapists and physios. This ily?’, ‘Where did I come from?’, and cost is shouldered by the organisa- ‘Why don’t I have a family like my tion, as it does not fall under the friends at school?’” general functioning of a CYCC. Family reunions Some of the children attend special needs schools. While Nazareth The organisation has facilitated Care doesn’t have to cover school some wonderful reunions of chil-

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The children’s care facility of Nazareth Care in Cape Town accommodates up to 40 children who suffer from various serious health issues, Catholic Care (formerly Nazareth House) serves communities in cities throughout South Africa. (Photos: Nazareth Care) dren with family members, usually after real “detective work”, travelling to areas around Upington, Beaufort West, Oudtshoorn and even as far as Mpumalanga and North West provinces.

But sadly there are always those children whose parents will never be found.

“It has been such a blessing when we find loving and dedicated adoptive parents for these children, several within our own Catholic parishes,” Sr Craig said.

“I remain in touch with many of them, and it is so rewarding to receive warm family photos and surprise visits as the children grow and become more and more embedded into their new families,” she said.

“I am so grateful to God for finding these families, and to the families themselves for opening their hearts and their homes in this way.”

Elderly care On the room doors in the corridors of the residence for the elderly are the names and photos of the people who live there, aimed at making those who live there feel more at home.

In the rooms, family photos are on display, books on the table, furnishings by family members—all there to create a familiar and comforting environment for the residents.

Full-time care is provided to 74 frail elderly in the residences in Vredehoek and Elsies River. The elderly in their care are without family support and, without exception, suffer from age-related conditions such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s and diabetes.

They require full-time nursing support.

The care facilities include independent living in self-contained apartments for seniors who can manage daily activities, where staff remain close to support or offer assistance.

Residents enjoy an independent lifestyle with immediate access to additional support as and when needed. Support includes assistance with daily living activities such as personal hygiene, medication and/or nutrition.

Frail care is offered, as well as 24/7 supervision for residents who are no longer able to fulfil daily tasks.

There is a specialised care centre developed in line with global bestpractice standards for memory care which caters to the particular requirements of those diagnosed with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s disease.

Several levels of care are offered, from recovery to palliative care.

Nazareth Care also offers respite for primary caregivers who sometimes need short-term relief to manage the strain of home-based care.

“We believe that everyone is entitled to a life of dignity, meaning and companionship,” said Wayne Devy, Nazareth Care African region’s CEO.

“Our residents do enjoy the comfort of home in a place where we coordinate a tailored approach so as to attend to their individual needs—emotional, spiritual and physical.”

Outreach centres Besides providing residential care for the many children and elderly in their facilities, the Sisters of Nazareth are also involved in community work and outreach centres across South Africa.

Some of these include food and soup kitchens in Schauderville, Port Elizabeth; outreach to poor and needy in Alexandra, Yeoville and Soweto in Johannesburg; support to night shelters, soup kitchens and the Masigcine Children’s home in Khayelitsha, Cape Town; homebased care and women’s self-help centre at Frances Shannon Hospice in Warrenton, Kimberley; and the Morning Star creche with 60 underprivileged children from surrounding areas at 14 Streams, and much more.

They also support St Kizito’s Children’s Project in Cape Town, by sharing their donations of spare children’s and baby goods.

Raising funds Operating expenses at Nazareth Care are much higher than the revenue generated through board-andlodging and government grants, so the organisation relies on donations and fundraising activities to ensure its sustainability and longevity.

“We have investigated and researched alternative income streams, including the launching of different and new campaigns,” said Mr Devy.

“From a national perspective, the 20K and Fund my Friends campaigns are created and designed to generate regular and consistent income to cover monthly operational expenses and resource shortfalls at the various houses and outreach centres,” he said.

These campaigns can be found on the new Nazareth Care website (www.nazarethcare.co.za).

“In all our activities, we continue to strive towards remaining true to the founding mission of the Sisters of Nazareth, in responding to the needs of the times, specifically of the most vulnerable within our communities. We are guided by our values of love, justice, hospitality, respect, compassion, and patience, and continue to build on these values in a personal and professional capacity,” Mr Devy said.

When Nazareth House was famous for its care for babies with HIV/Aids, the public collected not only funds but also necessary items, such as nappies.

This need still exists, along with that for other products. These include: body soaps, deodorants for boys and girls, Allergex syrup and tablets, baby nappies (size 5 and 6), adult nappies, linen, towels and much more. n For more information on how to help, contact Nazareth Care on 021 461-1635 or visit www.nazareth

The Southern Cross, September 4 to September 10, 2019

Fr Clemens Hilchenbach I.Sch

S

CHOENSTATT Father Clemens Josef Hilchenbach died on August 20 at the age of 89.

Clemens Hilchenbach was born in Welterod, western Germany, on July 12, 1930, and wanted to become a priest from an early age.

Directly after his schooling he entered the novitiate of the Pallottines in Olpe, near Cologne, where he studied from 1952-54.

He later attended the Schoenstatt theological college at Vallendar.

He was filled with zeal for Schoenstatt as a place of grace and as a movement and was drawn into the “integral core” of priests who became known as the Victoria Patris course (the victory of the Father).

This was during the difficult time when Schoenstatt’s development and founder Fr Joseph Kentenich’s position was not fully understood.

During the Word Eucharistic

Congress in August 1960, Archbishop Owen McCann of Cape Town responded to a request by Fr Kentenich’s by declaring his readiness to incardinate the three priests of the Victoria Patris group—Clemens Hilchenbach, Albert Ripberger and HeinzWerner Schneider—into his archdiocese in Cape Town.

Archbishop McCann ordained

them to the priesthood in Münster, Germany, on October 18, 1961. Fr Hilchenbach travelled to South Africa in January 1962 and did pastoral work until June 1971 in and around Cape Town. He helped to build up the movement in South Africa.

As a young priest he was drawn to the contemplative life, so when the Adoration Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers was established in 1972 he moved back to Schoenstatt in Germany to become a fulltime contemplative together with a small group on Mt Sion.

After a stroke in 2017, he became severely handicapped and needed frail-care assistance.

His Requiem Mass was on August 23. He was laid to rest in the cemetery of the Schoenstatt Fathers in Germany.

The Schoenstatt Movement in South Africa expressed its deep gratitude for all that Fr Hilchenbach did for them.

Eucharist: What Catholics believe Continued from page 5 And we have to be a little comfortable in the face of that mystery.”

Prof O’Malley references St Thomas Aquinas’ eucharistic hymn the Pange Lingua as an example of language that describes the Eucharist in an accessible way that can prepare Catholics for an appreciation of “substance” and “accidents” later.

He points to the verse that reads: “The Word in flesh makes true bread his flesh with a word; wine becomes the blood of Christ, and if sense is deficient, to confirm sincere hearts, faith alone suffices.”

Faith steps in where senses fail, St Thomas says.

“It’s about a docility and a submission to an ineffable mystery.

It’s why we celebrate these sacred mysteries at Mass because there’s something we simply cannot communicate,” Mr Bayer said.

“Faith is not purely an intellectual exercise,” Fr Donio said.

“Reason informs faith. Faith is that encounter with Christ.”

How can the Church encourage that encounter with Christ?

How can the Church help promote understanding of and love for the Eucharist?

Look to liturgical practice, what we do in our parishes, Prof O’Malley said. “Are there eucharistic processions in public ways? Do we engage in practices like benedictions and other dimensions that hold up the eucharistic sacrament and the gift of this presence?”

Along with incorporating reli-

A study conducted by Pew Research on the Real Presence in the Eucharist has many in the Church worried about catechesis. (Photo: CNS) gious practices surrounding the Eucharist, priests should preach about the doctrine of transubstantiation, especially on the feast of Corpus Christi, Prof O’Malley added.

F

or Catholic speaker and author Katie Prejean McGrady, eucharistic adoration has been an essential part of her ministry.

“There’s an opportunity to open people’s hearts and minds to the idea that we get to sit in the presence of Christ. And if this was just bread, then this would be a complete waste of time,” she said.

In her talks at youth conferences, faculty retreats and other events, she prepares the audience for prayer during eucharistic adoration.

“We’re sitting in front of Christ himself. What does that do to your heart? What can that do

What’s our heritage?

Continued from page 7 turn from being a hell on earth into the setting for a dignified life”, the pope writes.

In our constant battle against poverty as an evil, this should also be kept in mind.

Discrimination, xenophobia, consumerist attitudes, individualism and lack of respect for our own bodies are social ills that counter the common good. They impact on families, now and those of the future.

For example, wasteful consumption by young people, with an attitude of living beyond their means, may make it difficult for

them ever to acquire a home, to marry and build a family.

This month, with its focus on heritage (through the public holiday on September 24) and the environment, embodies a special call to conversion towards “living simply so that others may simply live”.

That is no easy call in a world so caught up in getting more, doing more, being more. But we can see around us that more is by no means better.

For the sake of healthier family lives on different levels, Pope Francis advocates: “Christian spirituality proposes an alterna-

for your mind? How can that bring you calm and comfort?

How can that give you the opportunity to discover and to grow?” she said.

Ms McGrady also suggested churches make adoration chapels available or open church doors during the day so that people can stop in and pray. “The ‘pop-in’ on Jesus was what really enflamed my heart with the love of the Eucharist”, she said.

Another way to help Catholics interiorise an understanding of the Real Presence is by deepening their relationship to mission.

Receiving Communion at Mass transforms us into living as a eucharistic people, Mr Bayer said. The Eucharist “missions us outward for the work of the Gospel during the week”.

“To live as a eucharistic people, to receive Jesus’ body, requires us to get down and wash feet. We must serve, that’s how we express it,” he said.

What the Pew survey has done—accurate or not—is spark conversation and critical thinking among Catholics leaders, educators and catechists on the best way to lead believers to a deeper understanding of the Eucharist.

“How do we take advantage of this conversation to help people encounter Christ more deeply in the Eucharist?” Fr Donio asked.

The Eucharist “is the real presence of Christ. How do we prepare for that encounter? How do we make that encounter? And what happens after that encounter?”—CNS tive understanding of the quality of life and encourages a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption.

“It proposes growth marked by moderation and the capacity to be happy with little. It is a return to that simplicity which allows us to stop and appreciate the small things, to be grateful for the opportunities which life affords us to be spiritually detached from what we possess and not to succumb to sadness for what we lack.”

Maybe Jesus could put it in a nutshell: “Don’t worry, be happy.” n For more articles by Toni Rowland, visit www.scross.co.za/ category/perspectives/rowland/

YOUr clASSiFieDS

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Church. See www.valuelife abortionisevil.co.za ABOrtiON WArNiNG: The Pill can abort. All Catholic users (married or cohabiting) must be told, to save their souls and their unborn infants. See www.epm.org/static/uploads/downloads/bcpill.p df

VAcANcY

PrAYerS

POWerFUl NOVeNA of Childlike Confidence. (This novena is to be said at the same time every hour for nine consecutive hours—just one day.) O Jesus, Who hast said, ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. Thy Most Holy Mother, I knock, I seek, I ask that my prayer be granted. (Make your request).

O Jesus, Who hast said, all that you ask of the Father in My Name, He will grant you, through the intercession of Mary. Thy Most Holy Mother, I humbly and urgently ask Thy Father in Thy name that my prayer be granted. (Make your request). O Jesus, Who hast said, Heaven and earth shall pass away but My word shall not pass. Through the intercession of Mary, Thy Most Holy Mother, I feel confident that my prayer will be granted. (Make your request).

In thanksgiving for prayers answered.

reMeMBer O Most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession was left un-

aided. Inspired with this confidence we fly to you, O Virgin of Virgins, my mother. To you do we come, before you we stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word incarnate, despise not our petitions and sins, but in your mercy, hear and answer us. Amen.

HOlY St Joseph & St Jude, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsmen of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessors of all who invoke you both, special patrons in time of need. To you both I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg you both to come to my assistance. Help me now in my urgent need and grant my petitions. In return I promise to make your name known and publish this prayer.

Amen.

YOU, O eternal Trinity, are a deep sea into which, the more I find, the more I seek.

O God the Father, O God the Son, and the Holy Spirit, what more could you give me than yourself? Prayer of Awe—St Catherine of Siena.

PerSONAl

ABOrtiON WArNiNG: The truth will convict a silent

Southern CrossWord solutions

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AccOMODAtiON

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Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday September 8, 23rd Sunday of the Year Wisdom 9:13-18, Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17, Philemon 9-10, 12-17, Luke 14:25-33 Monday September 9, St Peter Claver Colossians 1:24,2,3, Psalm 62:6-7,9, Luke 6:6-11 Tuesday September 10 Colossians 2:6-15, Psalm 145:1-2, 8-11, Luke 6:12-19 Wednesday September 11 Colossians 3:1-11, Psalm 145:2-3, 10-13, Luke 6:20-26 Thursday September 12 Colossians 3:12-17, Psalm 150:1-6, Luke 6:27-38 Friday September 13, St John Chrysostom 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14, Psalm 16:1-2,5,7-8,11, Luke 6:39-42 Saturday September 14, Exaltation of the Cross Numbers 21: 4-9 or Philippians 2:6-11, Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38, John 3:13-17 Sunday September 15, 24th Sunday of the Year Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14, Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 17-19, 1 Timothy 1:12-17, Luke 15:1-32

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the

24th Sunday: September 15 Readings: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14; Psalm 51:3-4,12-13,17,19; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-32 HAT are we to do about the mystery of sin? The first thing to do is to recognise that we are involved in it (not pretend that it doesn’t really exist); and the second is to accept that God is in the story, in two ways: firstly, God takes sin with immense seriousness, and secondly, God has a strategy for dealing with it, namely compassion and mercy.

We can see this in Sunday’s first reading, the account of the absurd business of the children of Israel building a Golden Calf, worshipping it and offering it sacrifices, with the foolish mantra that “This is your god, which brought you up from the land of Egypt”.

This is crazy, of course; but our task is to notice the battle between God and Moses; for when God draws Moses’ attention to this terrible lapse, he speaks of “your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt”, and promises to let his “anger burn upon them to eat them up”.

Moses, however, places the responsibility back with God, and speaks of “your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt”, then invites God to remember the ancestors “your servants Abraham and Isaac and Israel”.

To our astonishment, Moses wins the debate: “And the Lord repented of the evil which he said he was going to do to his people.”

W

S outher n C ross

God gives you a choice

Nicholas King SJ

We breathe a sigh of relief, but notice that the issue is handled with something of a light touch, as God cannot possibly repent or change his mind, or, for that matter, bring down evil upon his people. Nevertheless the point is made, that sin is serious, even if God’s mercy and compassion wins the day.

It is almost inevitable that the psalm on this day should be the great psalm that we call the “Miserere”, with its powerful treatment of the mystery of sin, “have mercy on me, O God, in accordance with your steadfast love; in the greatness of your compassion wipe away my sin.”

There is certainty here that sin has taken place; but that God can do something about it—“create a pure heart for me, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me”—and a desperate plea: “Do not send me away from your presence; and do not take your Holy Spirit away from me.” The whole story of our mysterious sinfulness rests with God; we have to take it seriously, but also to recognise that God can cope with it.

Something of this is evident in the second reading, where Paul is reflecting on what his life was like before he met Jesus. “I was the one who previously was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent person—but I was

lowance. When (after sweeping the floor to listen for the sound of the coin) she rediscovers it, she too throws a party, and one has the impression that the party may have cost more than what had been lost—but that is God’s generosity for you.

The third story is one of Jesus’ best-known parables, once again about the rediscovery of what had been lost. As before, there is a party; but the story is complicated by the fact of the Elder Brother, who is reluctant to join in.

There are two important moments in the story. The first is when we realise that the father has, all this time, had his binoculars trained on the road by which his beloved son might be returning. The second is at the very end, after the father’s explanation of what was happening.

The story does not tell us whether the Elder Brother agrees to join the party. That is because you and I, the hearers of this tale, have to decide whether or not we shall enter the house, and face both the reality of our own sinfulness and the reality of God’s compassionate mercy.

The choice is yours, this week.

Why ageing is God’s gift W

Conrad

E live in a culture that idealises youth and marginalises the old.

And, as the psychologist James Hillman says, the old don’t let go easily either of the throne or the drive that took them there. I know; I’m ageing.

For most of my life, I’ve been able to think of myself as young. Because I was born late in the year, October, I was always younger than most of my classmates, graduated from high school at age 17, entered the seminary at that tender age, was ordained to the priesthood at age 25, did an advanced degree within the next year, and was teaching graduate theology at age 26, the youngest member on the faculty.

I was proud of that, achieving those things so early. And so I always thought of myself as young, even as the years piled up and my body began to betray my conception of myself as young.

Moreover, for most of those years, I tried to stay young too in soul, staying on top of what was shaping youth culture, its movies, its popular songs, its lingo.

During my seminary years and for a good number of years after ordination, I was involved in youth ministry, helping give youth retreats in various high schools and universities. At that time, I could name all the popular songs, movies, and trends, speak youth’s language, and I prided myself in being young.

But nature offers no exemptions. Nobody stays young forever.

Moreover, ageing doesn’t normally announce its arrival. You’re mostly blind to

it until one day you see yourself in a mirror, see a recent photo of yourself, or get a diagnosis from your doctor—and suddenly you’re hit on the head with the unwelcome realisation that you’re no longer a young person.

That usually comes as a surprise. Ageing generally makes itself known in ways that have you denying it, fighting it, and accepting it only piecemeal, and with some bitterness.

But that day comes round for everyone when you’re surprised, stunned, that what you are seeing in the mirror is so different from how you have been imagining yourself and you ask yourself: “Is this really me? Am I this old person? Is this what I look like? “ Moreover, you begin to notice that young people are forming their circles away from you, that they’re more interested in their own kind, which doesn’t include you, and you look silly and out of place when you try to dress, act, and speak like they do.

There comes a day when you have accept that you’re no longer young in the world’s eyes—nor in your own.

G

ravity doesn’t just affect your body, pulling things downward—so too for the soul. It’s pulled downward along with the body, though ageing means something very different here. The soul doesn’t age, it matures.

You can stay young in soul long after the body betrays you. Indeed we’re meant to be always young in spirit.

Sunday Reflections

mercied.” And the essential thing here is that “the grace of our Lord overflowed with the faith and love which is in Christ Jesus”; and it is all about the mystery of sin: “Because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am Number 1!”

The point is that God can cope even with our sinfulness, as Paul was “mercied, so that in me in the first place Christ Jesus might reveal all the patience for a model for those who were going to come to faith in him, to receive eternal life”.

The gospel takes its setting in the complaints of the “Pharisees and scribes” about Jesus’ terrible friends, “tax-collectors and sinners”. The odd thing is that what Jesus does is to model the mercy and compassion of God. To explain what is going on, Jesus tells no less than three extraordinary stories, about God’s joy in bringing sinners back to him.

The first story is that of a shepherd, who loses a sheep, and then is unwise enough to abandon the entire remainder of the flock in order to bring that single stray home. Then he holds a party to celebrate.

The second story likewise ends in a party; it is that of a woman who loses one tenth of her not very generous house-keeping al-

Southern Crossword #879

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

Souls carry life differently than do bodies because bodies are built to eventually die. Inside of every living body, the lifeprinciple has an exit strategy.

It has no such strategy inside a soul, only a strategy to deepen, grow richer, and more textured.

Ageing forces us, mostly against our will, to listen to our soul more deeply and more honestly so as to draw from its deeper wells and begin to make peace with its complexity, its shadow, and its deepest proclivities—and the ageing of the body plays the key role in this.

To employ a metaphor from Hillman: The best wines have to be aged in cracked old barrels. So too for the soul: The ageing process is designed by God and nature to force the soul, whether it wants to or not, to delve ever-deeper into the mystery of life, of community, of God, and of itself.

Our souls don’t age, like a wine; they mature, and so we can always be young in spirit.

Our zest, our fire, our eagerness, our wit, our brightness, and our humour are not meant to dim with age. Indeed, they’re meant to be the very colour of a mature soul.

So, in the end, ageing is a gift, even if unwanted. Ageing takes us to a deeper place, whether we want to go or not.

Like almost everyone else, I still haven’t made my full peace with this and would still like to think of myself as young.

However, I was particularly happy to celebrate my 70th birthday two years ago—not because I was happy to be that age, but because, after two serious bouts with cancer in recent years, I was very happy just to be alive and wise enough now to be a little grateful for what ageing and a cancer diagnosis had taught me.

There are certain secrets hidden from health, writes the author John Updike.

True. And ageing uncovers a lot of them because, as Swedish proverb puts it: “Afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.”

ACROSS

2. Head-covering for man with son? (10) 8. Church of England service book (6,6) 10. African coast of tusks (5) 11. Small bunch of flowers for the bride (7) 12. Not quite a dozen (6) 13. Easter hat (6) 16. Tie near one learning the ropes (7) 18. Old Roman public square (5) 19. Correct behaviour (5,7) 20. Willing to consider new ideas (4-6)

Solutions on page 11

DOWN

1. Constructive designers (10) 3. Coal yet in the priest’s service (7) 4. Feeling expectation (6) 5. One does this to what one sows (5) 6. Excessively giving (12) 7. The magistrate did it after 14 down (7,1,4) 9. According to a fixed plan (10) 14. It breaks the law (7) 15. He’s at the priest’s service (6) 17. About human prophet (5)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

T

wo men are shipwrecked on a lonely island.

While one of them relaxes under a palm tree, the other runs all over the island, looking desperately out to the sea and calling for help.

“Nobody will find us here,” he whimpers, “we’ll never see home again.”

“Relax,” says the other fellow. “I earn over a million rand every week.”

His companion looks at him: “Your wealth is of no use here. Will it buy us food, or a boat? We will never leave this place and we’ll die here!”

“You’re wrong there, my friend,” the rich guy says. “Not only do I earn over a million rand every week, but I also donate 10% of it to the Church. No matter where we are, my bishop will find me!”

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